List Mgmt. Should The Eagles Request A Priority Assistance Package at The End of This Year?

[bzparkes]

Reckon we'll ask, and the AFL will laugh in our face.

Doubtful, were in a worse spot than when Norf first received assistance, plus the Melbourne media have started beating the drum. Could be an indication from the AFL to prepare the local ferals for imminent help for WCE.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

What are these 'levers' we had to generate 'multiple' picks?

We split our first rounders twice('21 & '22) to generate multiple picks, and have split picks on numerous occasions previously also.

Don't suggest forcing out players for picks because you can't do that to begin with if they don't want to leave.

Also, halfway through '22, Simmo said in a press conference that they needed 'mids, mids, mids' when asked about what they were looking at in the upcoming draft, so they were aware but simply didn't have picks due to the Kelly trade, which were late first rounders anyway and players like Warner wouldn't have been taken at those picks to begin with.

I’ve already explained it -in detail- in response to another question.

It sounds like you think the club hasn’t made any mistakes and has managed the list and the footy program well, and they didn’t have any other options available to them.

I think you have rocks in your head.

 

[bzparkes]

I’ve already explained it -in detail- in response to another question.

I'm not going through your ramblings so feel free to link it here.

It sounds like you think the club hasn’t made any mistakes and has managed the list and the footy program well, and they didn’t have any other options available to them.

Then you completely misunderstand what I am saying, because these 'levers' are only useful if they're actually available to you to use.

The fact is clubs hands are tied by the below:

Can't trade out players unwilling to move.

Hard to attract quality free agents when there's better options in Vic, due to the non-travel factor.

Can't just split picks unless a club wants to trade with you. Not sure if you recall but WCE tried to bring forward their first from this year and nobody wanted to trade.

Draft is massively compromised, due to academies and numerous highly rated father sons coming through, which limits the available pool of players + Vic players(Sheezel/Wardlaw/etc) basically refusing to go interstate, as well as the North assistance package last year.

This isn't absolving WCE of being implicit in the club's downfall but it's more nuanced than you are making it out to be

I think you have rocks in your head.

And I think you're living in a complete fantasy land if you think clubs can just 'pull a lever' to improve their draft position.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

I'm not going through your ramblings so feel free to link it here.



Then you completely misunderstand what I am saying, because these 'levers' are only useful if they're actually available to you to use.

The fact is clubs hands are tied by the below:

Can't trade out players unwilling to move.

Hard to attract quality free agents when there's better options in Vic, due to the non-travel factor.

Can't just split picks unless a club wants to trade with you. Not sure if you recall but WCE tried to bring forward their first from this year and nobody wanted to trade.

Draft is massively compromised, due to academies and numerous highly rated father sons coming through, which limits the available pool of players + Vic players(Sheezel/Wardlaw/etc) basically refusing to go interstate, as well as the North assistance package last year.

This isn't absolving WCE of being implicit in the club's downfall but it's more nuanced than you are making it out to be


And I think you're living in a complete fantasy land if you think clubs can just 'pull a lever' to improve their draft position.

I’m not here to fetch for you. Feel free to go find it. Or don’t, I’m not particularly concerned .

Freo have managed to rebuild their entire list within the landscape you described without draft assistance.

I reject the premise entirely there was no levers to pull. Barrass, Duggan as free agents in 2022 for a start. Darling had capital.

It was an administration that was so full of themselves that they refused to see what was clear as early as 2021 who refused to make difficult decisions.

That hubris has come back to bite the club, and they shouldn’t be bailed out by the AFL for their incompetence.

 

[Hook461123]

Who cares what oppo fans think. Most fans were against what North got too.
Give us the same as they got over the next two years plus better access to our academy and 2 extra rookie spots and we’ll improve.
It will still be incredibly hard to rise enough to be in contention considering how far back we are atm.
If AFL don’t help us out now then it’s going to be hard to get out of this situation with Tassie and the academies sucking up all the talent.
Although getting the talent is half the problem, developing it is another matter.

 

[Tugga27]

I’m not here to fetch for you. Feel free to go find it. Or don’t, I’m not particularly concerned .

Freo have managed to rebuild their entire list within the landscape you described without draft assistance.

I reject the premise entirely there was no levers to pull. Barrass, Duggan as free agents in 2022 for a start. Darling had capital.

It was an administration that was so full of themselves that they refused to see what was clear as early as 2021 who refused to make difficult decisions.

That hubris has come back to bite the club, and they shouldn’t be bailed out by the AFL for their incompetence.

I've mentioned it before, it doesn't matter how you get there.
If that was the case, North wouldn't have gotten anything.

To say we don't deserve help because it's our fault is delusional.

BTW, your talk about Duggan and Barrass is ridiculous.

 

[RanaNaved]

I doubt many people like the idea of club's getting AFL assistance, but it's a thing and we're more than bad enough to get help.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

I've mentioned it before, it doesn't matter how you get there.
If that was the case, North wouldn't have gotten anything.

To say we don't deserve help because it's our fault is delusional.

BTW, your talk about Duggan and Barrass is ridiculous.

Barrass would have gotten us pick 3 in 2022. Duggan maybe a pick after our 2nd at 24.

Given they were two players with capital, what’s ridiculous is not cashing in when we had the chance.

They’re the type of decisions that saw North get pick 3 for Mackay.

Rebuilding teams trade talent for picks. That’s part and parcel with rebuilding.

 

[bzparkes]

I’m not here to fetch for you. Feel free to go find it. Or don’t, I’m not particularly concerned .

Freo have managed to rebuild their entire list within the landscape you described without draft assistance.

I reject the premise entirely there was no levers to pull. Barrass, Duggan as free agents in 2022 for a start. Darling had capital.

It was an administration that was so full of themselves that they refused to see what was clear as early as 2021 who refused to make difficult decisions.

That hubris has come back to bite the club, and they shouldn’t be bailed out by the AFL for their incompetence.

Freo have had a lot more high draft picks than WCE and have been rebuilding for nearly 10 years.

They have 1 finals win to show for it.

You don't push vice captains out the door as free agents unless you want to piss off your remaining core of players. It's never worked well for other clubs in the past, except Collingwood, who already had a good core and got a free hit at Naicos, and that still cost them their coach, president and list manager.

You keep talking about 'levers' yet are against using said 'lever' in AFL assistance.

Either you want to use all the tools available to you or you don't.

Your position makes zero sense.

 

[Icanwalk]

Geelong did pretty much the exact same thing to get Cameron.

It worked out for them and didn't for us

It also helps that they are continually able to attract free agents for off field 'benefits' as well as the AFL letting them buy a top 10 draft pick.

Having said that, they've burned a heap of first rounders and are fortunate they've been able to find gold later in the draft.

If they didn't nail a number of those later picks, they'd be ****ed

This comparison does not help our case and deflects from our poor list management over an extended period.

Cameron was/is one the best, if not the best key forward in the game, and had been so for the better part of the decade before Geelong traded for him. He would be first choice KPF for every team in the comp. Kelly has proven to be at least 2 rungs below the best mids, and would not be prime mid at any a other side.

Geelong also knew the other Melbourne could pounce on Cameron if they could not reach an agreement with GWS. For various reasons, we were the only side in the frame for Kelly.

Geelong also received 2 future early second rounders in the trade, whereas we gave up an early 2nd and 3rd (in a much stronger draft full of WA talent).

If anything, the fact we have shown no ability to nail those later draft picks implies we should privelege earlier picks. In contrast, Geelong could use earlier picks aggressively knowing they consistently find quality draftees later in the draft.

You could make the same argument for the fact we haven't been able to pry West Australian talent from the expansion teams, unlike Geelong.

 

[bzparkes]

This comparison does not help our case and deflects from our poor list management over an extended period.

Cameron was/is one the best, if not the best key forward in the game, and had been so for the better part of the decade before Geelong traded for him. He would be first choice KPF for every team in the comp. Kelly has proven to be at least 2 rungs below the best mids, and would not be prime mid at any a other side.

Geelong also knew the other Melbourne could pounce on Cameron if they could not reach an agreement with GWS. For various reasons, we were the only side in the frame for Kelly.

Geelong also received 2 future early second rounders in the trade, whereas we gave up an early 2nd and 3rd (in a much stronger draft full of WA talent).

If anything, the fact we have shown no ability to nail those later draft picks implies we should privelege earlier picks. In contrast, Geelong could use earlier picks aggressively knowing they consistently find quality draftees later in the draft.

You could make the same argument for the fact we haven't been able to pry West Australian talent from the expansion teams, unlike Geelong.

There's a lot more Vic recruited to those expansion teams, so there's been far better opportunity for them to be lured back.

Then, they also get to pick the most successful ones, if they're a player with numerous clubs chasing them.

WA players most likely know they'll get drafted interstate, so they're far more mentally prepared to spend the entirety of their career over east, whereas good Vic players can return home at the drop of a hat and easily go to a contender after their first few years are up.

Anyone thinking it's an even playing field are kidding themselves.

 

[Icanwalk]

And most importantly, Geelong did not overestimate their list. They knew where they were at relative to the competition, and traded/drafted appropriately, culminating in a premiership. In contrast, we held onto the delusion our list was able to compete (until this year as indicated in multiple "get the band back together" themed interviews with Simpson), and so our list is in complete dissaray.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

Freo have had a lot more high draft picks than WCE and have been rebuilding for nearly 10 years.

They have 1 finals win to show for it.

You don't push vice captains out the door as free agents unless you want to piss off your remaining core of players. It's never worked well for other clubs in the past, except Collingwood, who already had a good core and got a free hit at Naicos, and that still cost them their coach, president and list manager.

You keep talking about 'levers' yet are against using said 'lever' in AFL assistance.

Either you want to use all the tools available to you or you don't.

Your position makes zero sense.

It makes perfect sense. I don’t think a club who won a flag 6 years ago, gets to engage in complete incompetence and mismanagement of their list and then get a hand out from AFL.

Why have freo had more top 10 picks? Because they’ve actively engaged in the trading system to generate more picks.

Clubs move players on all the time. Players request trades all the time. It’s a business and professional sporting comp.

Collingwood basically moved Ginnivan on. Hawthorn moved on O’Meara and Mitchell - which helped them get Weddle.

Bulldogs moved on their vice captain, Hunter.

I’ll ask you this. Do you think signing Barrass was in the best interests of the club long term?

Many on here over-indulge our players almost as much as simmo. “We trade him, he’s from WA”. They’re professional athletes on hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s the exact mentality that has led the club to where it is.

Clubs need to do what is in their best interest.

 

[bzparkes]

It makes perfect sense. I don’t think a club who won a flag 6 years ago, gets to engage in complete incompetence and then get a hand out from AFL.

It doesn't matter what you think, it's about where the club currently is and right now, they're staring down the barrel of 3x bottom 2 finishes, with 2 of those being spooners.

North finished just outside of finals 5 years ago, gutted their list to rebuild, then spent 3 years begging for handouts.

Are yo ok with them receiving handouts? Because their incompetence far eclipsed WCE's...

Clubs move players on all the time. Players request trades all the time. It’s a business and professional sporting comp.

Players have all the rights in player movement, clubs have little to none. This isn't the NBA/EPL/etc.

Collingwood basically moved Ginnivan on. Hawthorn moved on O’Meara and Mitchell - which helped them get Weddle.

Collingwood could absolutely do with Ginnivan right about now..

Hawthorn aren't exactly killing it either. Pressure is mounting on Mitchell from fans. Personally, i wouldn't be surprised to see him get the flick next year if they fail to improve again.

Bulldogs moved on their vice captain, Hunter.

Bulldogs have continually failed to deliver, despite having probably the most promising list in the AFL. They severely underperform. Again, not a club to be modelling list management off, especially considering the number of free hits they've got with father sons and academy picks.

I’ll ask you this. Do you think signing Barrass was in the best interests of the club long term?

At the time? Yes. Who would've replaced him as the second key defender? We'd be getting smashed even harder without him and who even know who we'd have selected with FS compo?

It's easy to be a hindsight hero but it's simply impossible to make decisions such as you're suggesting without being able to time travel.

Would Barrass have even wanted to leave then?

 

[Icanwalk]

There's a lot more Vic recruited to those expansion teams, so there's been far better opportunity for them to be lured back.

Then, they also get to pick the most successful ones, if they're a player with numerous clubs chasing them.

WA players most likely know they'll get drafted interstate, so they're far more mentally prepared to spend the entirety of their career over east, whereas good Vic players can return home at the drop of a hat and easily go to a contender after their first few years are up.

Anyone thinking it's an even playing field are kidding themselves.

No one is suggesting it's an even playing field. But this is not the main reason our list is in such a bad state. Our list management is.

And most draftees are from Victoria, so naturally Vic players will be overrepresented in the expansion teams. Likewise, there are more Vic clubs to compete for their signatures. Is there any evidence those returning Victorians disproportionately go to competing clubs? Rebuilding clubs, if managed correctly, could also be an attractive destination aided by their ability to offer more playing opportunity and cap space to departing players. Due to poor list management, we have not been able to do this in the first 3 years of the rebuild, missing out on quality WA players like Jackson and Clark.

 

[Rowan18]

Oppo fans would rightfully question why the AFL needs to bail out a team stupid and arrogant enough to hand over picks 14, 18, 24 and 33 spanning what has turned out to be two super drafts. That's four solid AFL players who would be coming into their prime now, for one player who wanted to come home anyway who is now in his final handful of seasons.

Lol - that is a shocking take. Firstly, the live picks were more like 16, 20, 27 and late 30s. Secondly, those drafts were not great and most of the players selected at those picks are either career over or haven't shown much.

It occurred to me that if we didn't trade for Kelly, guys like you would be complaining even more. Imagine if he stayed with Geelong, won another AA and a premiership? Then it would be:

"The club stuffed up by not taking a gun mid like Kelly for low draft picks. We could have had him for a couple late first rounds in weak drafts."

Our club was due a rebuild and we weren't going to dodge it. Notice how Richmond bottomed out in 2009 around the same time as us, won flags around the same time as us and is now bottoming. The reason we are so much worse is:

-negligence in our S&C as a result of covid cuts, leading to an injury crisis
-Our gameplan being made obsolete in 12 months due to rule changes (stand and 666), resulting in our list having the wrong players. Our coaching staff were also far too slow to adapt
-Some bad luck with career ending injuries (Shep, Venables)

A mixture of bad luck and failure to manage what was in our control have got us here. Tim Kelly was arguably a fairly neutral trade and not the reason.

I'd say we should dig ourselves out, but as others have said, the draft is so compromised now, that we need to get a leg up. It was ridiculous last year that the bottom team had their second pick pushed back by 11 spots. That makes it almost a third round selection.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

It doesn't matter what you think, it's about where the club currently is and right now, they're staring down the barrel of 3x bottom 2 finishes, with 2 of those being spooners.

North finished just outside of finals 5 years ago, gutted their list to rebuild, then spent 3 years begging for handouts.

Are yo ok with them receiving handouts? Because their incompetence far eclipsed WCE's...



Players have all the rights in player movement, clubs have little to none. This isn't the NBA/EPL/etc.



Collingwood could absolutely do with Ginnivan right about now..

Hawthorn aren't exactly killing it either. Pressure is mounting on Mitchell from fans. Personally, i wouldn't be surprised to see him get the flick next year if they fail to improve again.



Bulldogs have continually failed to deliver, despite having probably the most promising list in the AFL. They severely underperform. Again, not a club to be modelling list management off, especially considering the number of free hits they've got with father sons and academy picks.



At the time? Yes. Who would've replaced him as the second key defender? We'd be getting smashed even harder without him and who even know who we'd have selected with FS compo?

It's easy to be a hindsight hero but it's simply impossible to make decisions such as you're suggesting without being able to time travel.

Would Barrass have even wanted to leave then?

Priority picks are based on premiership points, percentage, last premiership and last finals appearance and injuries. That’s the formula.

Based on that, We won a flag 6 years ago and injuries have impacted our performance in 2022,23 and arguably 24. Plenty of grounds for AFL to say “no, you’re not eligible for assistance”. I don’t think they will. I think they’ll give us some additional rookie spots and maybe a future 3rd.

We jumped the gun with Barrass because we misread where we were at.

Do you think the club would have re-signed him if they knew we would finish 17th in 2022 and Barrass could generate pick 3?

That’s an active decision the club decided to pursue, instead of treading carefully and waiting until March/April to see where we are at.

If we had done that, we could have said, Tom maybe explore free agency. Clubs tell
Players to explore options all the time.

That’s exactly how we got Witherden, remember?

If we had told Barrass to explore free agency we could have done the mega trade and had pick 3 still.

Pick 3 for Jackson. Melbourne were ringing us because they wanted to deal with us and not Freo.

Off season of Hewett, Ginbey, Jackson.

That would be good list management.

 

[bzparkes]

No one is suggesting it's an even playing field. But this is not the main reason our list is in such a bad state. Our list management is.

And most draftees are from Victoria, so naturally Vic players will be overrepresented in the expansion teams. Likewise, there are more Vic clubs to compete for their signatures. Is there any evidence those returning Victorians disproportionately go to competing clubs? Rebuilding clubs, if managed correctly, could also be an attractive destination aided by their ability to offer more playing opportunity and cap space to departing players. Due to poor list management, we have not been able to do this in the first 3 years of the rebuild, missing out on quality WA players like Jackson and Clark.

How would we have been able to get Jackson?

Freo may have got him anyway but they were only really able to facilitate a trade because Lachie Neale(a now 2x Brownlow medalist) left, which got them Cerra(who also left), which got them the pick to be able to trade for Jackson.

And do you mean Clark, who Freo got from Geelong? Only ever wanted to go to Freo anyway.

WCE were never in a position to get either player.

Freo have done well in bringing back local talent but gee, they've made some shocking calls in that department also, which has caused them some big misses. For instance, blowing the picks on Hogan when they could've just drafted Ben King, for starters.

 

[ThePuma #9]

It's in the AFLs best interest to provide us assistance with priority picks on the proviso they are traded off.

We stink. Our skills are some of the worst i've seen in a long time. Fundamentals such as kicking, hand balling and marking are all below AFL standard.

Forget for a second how hard it is to be a supporter atm (because the AFL don't care) and consider how much this hurts the AFL too.

We are awful to watch which in turn affects

• Broadcast numbers (advertising, subsription)

• Attendance both home and away (particularly away which means ticket sales, lost revenue for smaller clubs)

• AFL Branding and merchandise. All of which the AFL gets it's cut.

We should be given a leg up to recruit 3 to 4 24-26 year olds to help stabilize the list.

Premature retirements, bad drafting & trading, monumental injury list..... all these things have contributed and assistance is there to help a club when the situation becomes dire.

I think it's pretty dire.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

How would we have been able to get Jackson?

Freo may have got him anyway but they were only really able to facilitate a trade because Lachie Neale(a now 2x Brownlow medalist) left, which got them Cerra(who also left), which got them the pick to be able to trade for Jackson.

And do you mean Clark, who Freo got from Geelong? Only ever wanted to go to Freo anyway.

WCE were never in a position to get either player.

Freo have done well in bringing back local talent but gee, they've made some shocking calls in that department also, which has caused them some big misses. For instance, blowing the picks on Hogan when they could've just drafted Ben King, for starters.

Wrong about Clark. He wanted to come to west coast or was at least open to it, but we had no cap space.

He was on decent coin after signing an extension when he was lighting it up in 2019.

If we had told Barrass to explore free agency we could have done the mega trade and had pick 3 still.

Pick 3 for Jackson. Melbourne were ringing us because they wanted to deal with us and not Freo.

 

[Icanwalk]

How would we have been able to get Jackson?

Freo may have got him anyway but they were only really able to facilitate a trade because Lachie Neale(a now 2x Brownlow medalist) left, which got them Cerra(who also left), which got them the pick to be able to trade for Jackson.

And do you mean Clark, who Freo got from Geelong? Only ever wanted to go to Freo anyway.

WCE were never in a position to get either player.

Freo have done well in bringing back local talent but gee, they've made some shocking calls in that department also, which has caused them some big misses. For instance, blowing the picks on Hogan when they could've just drafted Ben King, for starters.

You are correct, we were not in a position to get either player, but that is because we had structured our list as though it were competing for a premiership.

The preceeding 2 years of draft capital had been lost to Kelly trade, as had cap space (approx 1 mil per year). And we had no cap space to play with given the generous contracts afforded to underperforming (Gaff, Kelly, etc.) or non-performing players (the perenially injured Yeo, Sheuy, Nic Nat, etc.).

If we had properly assessed the list and managed it accordingly, we'd have accrued the draft capital and cap space to make a play for such players. This is a fault of list management.

 

[bzparkes]

Priority picks are based on premiership points, percentage, last premiership and last finals appearance and injuries. That’s the formula.

No it's not, there is no formula.

Stop making shit up.

Based on that, We won a flag 6 years ago and injuries have impacted our performance in 2022,23 and arguably 24. Plenty of grounds for AFL to say “no, you’re not eligible for assistance”. I don’t think they will. I think they’ll give us some additional rookie spots and maybe a future 3rd.

They said that last year. If we go worse, they won't be saying it again. Vic media are already beating the jungle drums.

We jumped the gun with Barrass because we misread where we were at.

There's no 'jumping' the gun, he was coming OOC and an A-grade defender. You don't just cash players in every time they come up for FA.

Do you think the club would have re-signed him if they knew we would finish 17th in 2022 and Barrass could generate pick 3?

Quite possibly.

Also, how is the club going to know they would finish 17th in 2022?

Crystal ball?

Sounds like the club needs to employ a psychic more than anything else.

They can read the tea leaves and direct the club's list management strategies mving forward.

That’s an active decision the club decided to pursue, instead of treading carefully and waiting until March/April to see where we are at.

All clubs lock up free agents as early as possible. It's not like WCE did something unusual here.

If we had done that, we could have said, Tom maybe explore free agency. Clubs tell
Players to explore options all the time.

Clubs tell unrequired players to explore free agency, not their primary A-grade fullback(unless you are Norf).

That’s exactly how we got Witherden, remember?

Yes, and now we're seeing why he was let go from Brisbane.

If we had told Barrass to explore free agency we could have done the mega trade and had pick 3 still.

Again, clubs don't tell A-graders to 'explore' their options, unless they royally **** their salary cap, like Collingwood did.

Pick 3 for Jackson. Melbourne were ringing us because they wanted to deal with us and not Freo.

I don't think you understand how player movement works, still.

Melbourne could ring all they want, if Jackson only chooses Freo, that's where he goes.

I don't even think he met with WCE.

Off season of Hewett, Ginbey, Jackson.

That would be good list management.

Yes, and a 3some with Margot Robbie and Dua Lipa would be incredible.

Both are just a pipedream however.

 

[bzparkes]

Wrong about Clark. He wanted to come to west coast or was at least open to it, but we had no cap space.

He was on decent coin after signing an extension when he was lighting it up in 2019.

And you know this how?

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

No it's not, there is no formula.

Stop making s**t up.



They said that last year. If we go worse, they won't be saying it again. Vic media are already beating the jungle drums.



There's no 'jumping' the gun, he was coming OOC and an A-grade defender. You don't just cash players in every time they come up for FA.



Quite possibly.

Also, how is the club going to know they would finish 17th in 2022?

Crystal ball?

Sounds like the club needs to employ a psychic more than anything else.

They can read the tea leaves and direct the club's list management strategies mving forward.



All clubs lock up free agents as early as possible. It's not like WCE did something unusual here.



Clubs tell unrequired players to explore free agency, not their primary A-grade fullback(unless you are Norf).



Yes, and now we're seeing why he was let go from Brisbane.



Again, clubs don't tell A-graders to 'explore' their options, unless they royally * their salary cap, like Collingwood did.



I don't think you understand how player movement works, still.

Melbourne could ring all they want, if Jackson only chooses Freo, that's where he goes.

I don't even think he met with WCE.



Yes, and a 3some with Margot Robbie and Dua Lipa would be incredible.

Both are just a pipedream however.

Happy to accept your apology now

“Under the new system, which will come into effect this year, a more complicated formula will be used, which takes into account premiership points, percentage, finals appearances and injury rates for a club over several seasons.”

AFL overhauls priority pick system

The AFL will scrap its priority draft pick system and replace it with a newer version which makes it much harder for clubs to gain extra selections.

amp.theage.com.au

Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[bzparkes]

You are correct, we were not in a position to get either player, but that is because we had structured our list as though it were competing for a premiership.

We were competing for a premiership.

Players shit the bed in the last 3 games of '19, otherwise it's entirely possibly we'd have had a chance to go B2B.

The preceeding 2 years of draft capital had been lost to Kelly trade, as had cap space (approx 1 mil per year). And we had no cap space to play with given the generous contracts afforded to underperforming (Gaff, Kelly, etc.) or non-performing players (the perenially injured Yeo, Sheuy, Nic Nat, etc.).

Again, all this is being said with the benefit of hindsight.

When you have the potential trade-off of losing an AA winger(Gaff) for pick 19, would you take it?

No, you wouldn't, especially when you've just won a flag.

If we had properly assessed the list and managed it accordingly, we'd have accrued the draft capital and cap space to make a play for such players. This is a fault of list management.

Not absolving the list management team of any particular guilt but rotating list managers, due to Covid cuts no less, would've made it challenging to have a clear and consistent strategy to continue to build the list.

Not having any access to the top 10 for over a decade(bar the Sheed pick swap) has also left the middle-aged playing group bereft of talent, hence how lopsided the list is with the age profile.